Lead Architect, Space Vehicle Autonomy

Blue Origin; Seattle (WA); Hybrid; USD 214,000 - 299,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation assistance provided

Travel approximately 25% of the time

Job summary

Blue Origin seeks a Chief Engineer, Space Vehicle Autonomy to lead the architecture and maturation of autonomous decision-making for satellite platforms. You will drive AI/ML autonomy, fuse perception, and embed Space Domain Awareness into the propulsion and navigation decisions. Travel ~25% and relocation assistance are offered.

You will mentor engineers, chair reviews, and shape the autonomy road-map across national security and future civil missions.

Qualifications

• Bachelor of Science degree in an engineering-related field.
• Minimum of 20 years of advanced spacecraft design, development, or analysis experience.
• Demonstrated experience as a technical authority or chief engineer on complex spacecraft or autonomy programs.
• Deep understanding of traditional autonomy mechanisms (state machines, FDIR) and AI/ML/CNN-based approaches.
• Experience adjudicating complex technical trade-offs and leading Review Boards.
• Experience with national security space customer needs and autonomy requirements.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the technical authority for space vehicle autonomy and set architecture strategy.
• Define and evolve the autonomy architecture spanning rule-based and AI/ML methods.
• Provide expert direction on OODA loop implementation for Rendezvous and Proximity Operations.
• Integrate SDA principles into onboard autonomy for space-domain awareness.
• Lead perception stacks, sensor fusion, and vision-based pose estimation for autonomous maneuvering.
• Oversee MLOps pipelines including data curation, model validation, and lifecycle management.

Skills

Technical authority

Autonomy architecture

MLOps pipelines

Space Domain Awareness

AI/ML in autonomy

RPO intelligence

Systems engineering collaboration

Safety & mission assurance

Education

Bachelor of Science in engineering

Master's degree in Engineering (preferred)

Job description

Blue Origin seeks a Chief Engineer, Space Vehicle Autonomy to lead the architecture and maturation of autonomous decision-making for satellite platforms. You will drive AI/ML autonomy, fuse perception, and embed Space Domain Awareness into the propulsion and navigation decisions. Travel ~25% and relocation assistance are offered.

You will mentor engineers, chair reviews, and shape the autonomy road-map across national security and future civil missions.